Metal Gear Solid 5 is Konami's only big release in the near-future
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Konami’s management in Japan depicted as Orwellian — but how unique is it?

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Japan’s Nikkei publication reported that the corporate culture at Konami is Orwellian, with constant monitoring of employees and public shaming for any offenses.

The report said that the company that has published game series such as Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Pro Evolution Soccer has become a demoralizing place to work in recent times. That report could be damaging to the company’s efforts to recruit new developers as it expands from consoles to mobile. The company’s reputation has already suffered public relations hits during its ongoing separation from longtime Metal Gear developer Hideo Kojima.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.